304 EEED AND BOWLES AT HOME. 



While after these sheep we came across a prospectors' 

 camp, in which were three French Canadians. Two of them 

 were those I met at Carroll, who had mistaken me for an 

 Indian. They were doing badly here and wished themselves 

 back in the Black Hills, and very soon after set off to return 

 there. 



Major Reed having told us that he was expecting the Bannock 

 Indians on a visit to the Basin in about a fortnight's time, 

 the Colonel and I determined to pay the ranche a visit and 

 see them arrive. On our way we camped for dinner by a 

 stream, which disappeared underground every few hundred 

 yards, and yet was full of fine trout wherever it was visible. 

 I had never seen a similar case, though our guide said they 

 were common throughout the country, the soil being very 

 sandy. In summer this stream was several feet deep, and is 

 above ground its whole length, only sinking in the manner 

 mentioned when the water gets low in the autumn. We 

 reached the ranche in the evening and found Reed and 

 Bowles at home, the latter being a big rough man, who had 

 married a Blackfoot squaw, who kept house for them. The 

 ranche consisted of a square stockade with large entrance 

 gates, inside which were four or five small log cabins, one of 

 which was the trading-store, another was for Bowles and his 

 wife and Reed to live in, while the others were for strangers 

 and for eating-rooms. The whole place was very untidy and 

 dirty, a squaw having no idea of cleanliness. We were shown 

 into the one meant for passing travellers, where there was 

 a bed and two home-made chairs with raw-hide seats. The 

 floor was earth and the fire was made on it, the smoke going 



